Fr. Rick’s Pastoral Messages 1/14/23

Hospitality:  Remember that we are a ‘Hospitality Parish’ with a major outreach to our many visitors. Please sign up to help host our Sunday morning Coffee and Muffin gathering. Sign up list is in the gathering space.

Living Faith Daily Catholic Devotional booklets for Jan – March are now available in the gathering space.  Take one.

Banquet of Love

Join Jim and Maureen Otremba in this Introduction Course and discover how each and every Eucharist can truly transform your marriage! 

• Learn how the Holy Spirit put this curriculum on Jim and Maureen’s hearts in 1993.
• Discover how each Eucharist offers us eight powerful forms of intimacy – the “Foundational Intimacies.” 
• Learn how these eight foundational intimacies offer a specific road map to transform our marriages.

Please consider signing up for this FREE weekly online retreat that will help us understand the Eucharist in a very practical way in the relationships that actually affect us the most.  You can log on today for the first session.  It’s often said that the marriage goes, usually so goes the family and so goes the society. 

How long have you been married?

When was your last marriage retreat or renewal experience?

How was it enhanced by the Eucharist or other religious beliefs?

What was the effect on your family and other friends and acquaintances?

Homily Reflection:

Is 49:3, 5-6: In the first reading Isaiah was called from the womb to be a servant, but the ultimate vision is much larger. Isaiah the prophet, who is identified with the people of Israel, is told that it is not enough that they work to restore Israel, but rather they must be lights to all the nations.

Ps. 40: “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.”  A new song was put in the psalmist by God.  He now realizes that it is not sacrifices, holocausts or sin-offerings that God wanted, but obedience.  The psalmist’s response, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.”

We can see how the trials of Israel over the centuries has produced a new prophet like John the Baptist in John’s gospel today (1:29-34).  He must see the Messiah for who He really is and announce that truth and help others prepare to announce the same Truth.  “Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God.”

Our encounter with the risen Christ will give us a whole new vision and purpose in life.  We are given the ability to do this through the grace of baptism, but we must be regularly renewed with the Eucharist in order to consistently say, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will”.  I come to bring the light that the world desperately needs.

Before we give our testimony as light bearers, we would do well to first understand the nature of the darkness.  

How will renewed marriages be a central part of the light for healthier, holier societies?

How is our mission similar to Isaiah’s and John the Baptist’s?

How is our mission extended beyond our own families (our own Israel)?

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